<
https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-crimes-redemption-and-rebellion-the-truths-told-in-65-000-years-of-australian-art-are-essential-for-national-healing-238426>
"
Review: 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art, edited by Marcia
Langton and Judith Ryan (Thames & Hudson)
The third section of the
Uluru Statement from the Heart is Truth. Without
knowing the truth of the history of Australia’s Indigenous people, and how the
European invasion continues to impact on them, it is hard to understand the
pain behind the loss of The Voice referendum and the ongoing need for treaties.
Marcia Langton and Judith Ryan are truth tellers. Their book
65,000 years: A
Short History of Australian Art should be in every library in the country. The
truths they tell are compelling, enticing – sometimes appalling – and unless
they are known, the country cannot heal.
For much of the 20th century, there was tension between anthropologists and art
curators on the status of what we now call Indigenous art. While
anthropologists focused on what they saw as visual evidence for culture and
custom, art curators and historians marvelled at what the first history of
Australian art, William Moore’s
The Story of Australian Art (1934), called a
“fine sense of design”. It took many years for all concerned to see that both
are true."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
